India News | Critics

Indian activist targeted by government investigations during pursuit of PM for negligence during 2002 massacres

Rights activist Teesta Setalvad has been seeking to hold PM Narendra Modi responsible for negligence and conspiracy during the 2002 riots that left more than 1,000 dead–many of them Muslim–in Gujarat, where Modi was chief minister.

Setalvad has been subject to numerous unannounced searches, bank freezes, mobility restrictions, interrogations, and lawsuits by government bodies and Modi’s allies.

Tensions have also led to government monitoring of and restrictions on international NGOs including the Ford Foundation, from whom Setalvad received funding for projects unrelated to her battle with Modi.

“What I’m not worried about is them finding anything incriminating against us. … I’m worried they’ll find things we have that incriminate them.”

Outlas Outreach

The Ongoing Insecurity of LGBT Ghanaians

A relatively stable constitutional democracy, Ghana has seen the beginnings of official outreach to its LGBT citizens in recent years as it has signed on to pro-LGBT international accords and treaties, but new research from Human Rights Watch (HRW) reveals ongoing persecution and gender-based vulnerabilities. Though rarely enforced, a law criminalizing same-sex relations that emerged from the country’s colonial legacy has led to the political and corporal endangerment of LGBT Ghanaians, exposing them to intimidation, violence, fears of public exposure, and little to no recourse to law enforcement protection. Lesbians, bisexual women, and trans men have faced especially high levels of violence and labor precarity, and anti–domestic violence laws have done little to protect them given the lack of trust in the legal system. In response, HRW conducted interviews with LGBT Ghanaians to track insecurity across a range of social, legal, and economic domains and issued a set of recommendations to improve protections for the community.